(Burlington) A woman from China pleaded guilty Friday to trying to smuggle 29 eastern box turtles, a protected species, to Quebec by kayak on a Vermont lake.
Wan Yee Ng, 41, was arrested on the morning of June 28 at an Airbnb in Canaan as she prepared to board an inflatable kayak with a sports bag on Wallace Lake, which straddles the Canada-U.S. border , according to a Border Patrol agent’s affidavit filed in federal court.
Officers had been informed by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that two other people, including a man believed to be her husband, had begun paddling an inflatable boat from the Canadian side of the lake toward the United States, according to court documents.
Officers searched his heavy gym bag and found 29 live eastern box turtles, individually wrapped in socks, the affidavit states. Eastern box turtles are known to be sold on the Chinese black market for $1,000 each, the affidavit adds.
Her cell phone was seized and a search by law enforcement found communications showing she had tried to smuggle the turtles into Canada so they could eventually be sold for a profit in Hong Kong, according to the plea agreement. Wan Yee Ng, originally from Hong Kong, lived in Canada.
She pleaded guilty Friday to one count of illegally attempting to export and mail 29 eastern box turtles out of the United States, in violation of the law. VTDigger was first to report on the plea deal.
She is expected to be sentenced in December and faces up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.